On Oct 2nd 2013, a person was arrested in San Francisco (CA USA) who allegedly operated the darknet marketplace website “The Silk Road”. Shortly after, the Silk Road went offline.

Within minutes discussions on the Internet sprung up with thousands of people trying to cope with their loss, trying to make sense of what happened. Several “official” documents (a criminal complaint and an indictment) were released shortly after which, in turn, lead to commentators rushing to explain what stupid mistakes DPR – the Silk Road operator – had committed. Now, after a few days have passed, I’d like to give analysis a try myself.